Is Gendry’s warhammer practical? (GAME OF THRONES SEASON 7)

Sooo… how did the night king get those chains?

You used chivalry's pole hammer (their name not mine) model lol

Kinetic energy = mass * velocity ^2. Increasing the weight of the hammer is only beneficial until it starts to slow down your swings.

He's the son of Robert fucking Baratheon. Of course it's practical.

I wasnt aware I needed fottage of halfnaked snappjelly in my life.

obviously no
but but but Sultan Murat 4th had a 60kg mace and did use it (its proven)

I am sure it's not supossed to be hallow in the show

Can you talk about the Robert Baratheon's warhammer? is said that most people could not use ir effectivly (Even Ned Stark that wields Ice wich is very heavy as well). Robert is described as 1,98 cm tall (6'6") and very muscular.

Dang bro, mirin that physique!

Sadly it's also so fucking ugly…. I mean… I usually don't mind unrealistic weapons IF at least they look good. But this one is so ugly… It looks like an metallic potato on a stick.

Anything is effective even a wooden sword proven by the Waterdancer of Bravos

The only use i can think of it is if he throws a big smack every once and then to smash armours and meanwhile is protected by his friends with shields and swords

completely possible…… everyone saying no needs to read some books and pay attention to history

who cares its gone he needs a new one now.

"Medieval smiths would be used to heavy hammers" … I've done blacksmithing, and typical one-handed hammers are between 1 and 4 pounds, averaging around 2. That slightly less than 1kg. And even that takes some training to get used to; hammers on the heavier end cannot be used for long periods unless you're quite a large person with a lot of muscle. If you need more power from the hammer, just increase the length of the haft. In craft terms, a "striker," who uses a two handed hammer to "strike" a rod held by another person, typically uses a hammer of no more than 8-10 pounds, roughly 4-5 kilos, in a strictly up-and-down swing, similar to workers spiking a railroad. Just had to correct that little bit of misinformation. Blacksmiths do not use particularly heavy hammers.

Speaking particularly of the fantasy design discussed here … I have more problems with the weight than the round shape. Flat surfaces on hammerheads are hugely important when you are trying to be very directional with your impact: e.g., when you are trying to drive a nail without bending it. Relatively speaking … hammer heads tend to have a slight curve anyway. But if you are simply trying to distribute force to a target, a round head delivers more force from more angles, and even though your hammer may slip once it hits, it makes those glancing blows much more dangerous (it might also make recovery easier depending on the type of target you aim at). This is also something a blacksmith would be familiar with: they often use round hammers to "draw out" steel with ball peen hammers because the round head moves steel more quickly and can be used from many more angles. So the round head isn't a problem for me, just the sheer size of the thing.

Another thing that I don't think you mentioned, is that the kinetic energy is calculated by Mass x Speed^2 and then you have to divide that by the contact area of the hammerhead to the target to find the resulting pressure and as such, the impact force. So unless you can accelerate the large hammer to a similar speed as a smaller hammer, you might actually end up hitting with a lot less power, losing the one apparent advantage of the larger hammer.

Just so some people know his Warhammer is supposed to mirror Robert Baratheon Warhammer. It waa described in the book that Robert's Warhammer is so big and heavy that Ned Stark himself had a hard time lifting it Robert Baratheon was always described in his younger years during the war as being strong tall pretty much Chris Helmsworth but with black hair

Gendry really loves his bling, does he? In season two he had that amazing helmet, shaped like a bull's head – and when we see his warhammer, it's got gilded stags on it. 😀

I think Gendry chose it because Robert chose it and Robert chose it because he was very strong.

The impact of the hammer is dependent on the weight and speed of the head. A heavier head would make the swing slower so it would negate the effect of it being heavier. The blow is the amout of energy you put into it + a bit of gravity depending on the swing.
Slower means the oponent has more time to step aside/back, block or counterattack wich is bad. The heaviest axe I used was 3,6 4 kilogram for logging and that is for stationary oponents who do not block, parry or counterattack. (-:

Thanks for the analysis! A few questions though:
1) Wouldnt a hollow head be a really bad idea? depending on the material and the material thickness, I would imagine it to be less stable (but certainly not more so). Plus, with the added size compared to a solid head of the same weight it would apply the impact over a much larger areaand be less effective especially against armour (which it is supposed to be particularly good against…). Or am I overestimating that?
2) I certainly lack expertise in the classification of polearms, but doesn't a poleaxe have a "hammer"head on one side and an axe-ish blade on the other, whereas the hammer+spike on a pole is a bec de corbin / crow's beak / lucerne hammer?
3) To me the hammer head looks very asymmetric in terms of weight distribution on both sides. Wouldn'T that make it even more unwieldy?

PS: Does nobody else think that that warhammer looked fake as shite? I mean it screams "I'm actually made of plastic and not heavy at all". Is that why he is able to wield it as a weapon? 😀

Crap, you are ripped man!

I'm seriously wondering: isn't there a point where these heavy weapons become useful again? The question is: Wouldn't a weapoin with enough weight be powerful enough to overcome the padding of a helmet and knock out a knight with even the best padded full plate armour? I'm just wondering. Because then a really heavy weapon like this could actually become useful again (if you wear very good armour yourself, so that the slow speed doesn't really endanger you too much).

I hoped it was wood with metal cover.

The striking face is a compound curve, the exact opposite of what you want in a hammer designed for battle.
The curved surface will reduce the impact force transfered into the target, making the weight of the "weapon" even more pointless.

daaaaammmnnn son those muscles tho

Alec Steele made it btw. You can watch the proces on his channel.

Hey snap! Where do you get your swords?

@SnapJelly
Personaly I think there might be a scene in the original script that was cut.
And that the design of the hammer was originaly ment t be a dragonglass hammer.
There are diferent props they used and the one used in combat scenes is sligtly diferent
If you look at this version wielded by the hound https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xAE9PAXBYCs/maxresdefault.jpg
You see it looks more like a grey metal head that has a large black dragonglass crystal that goes trough the metal head and is fixed in place.
The undead he hits stay down while it is sugested only dragon glass can do that, again sugesting part of this scene was recorded asuming it was a dragonglass hammer.

Do you think the design is any better if we asume that most of the bulk we see in the head of the hammer is light weight (at least compared to steal) dragonglass ?

SnapJelly, you looking F I T T

2:08 Hey! Not baad ! You looks like Bob Lennon, (without his charisma) but with musles, it's glorious ! Amazing !

Making an impact weapon hollow would diminish it's effectiveness. Impact weapons, and most hand to hand weapons for that meter, are all about concentrating force at as small area as possible and hollow headed weapon would do quite the opposite meanwhile serving no other, practical, purpose. That hammer is sticking like a soar thumb in the otherwise fairly realistically looking armory of Game of Thrones…

He is also a Baratheon and therefore might have some of his fathers genes in strength because Robert, his father wielded a much bigger warhammer.

I am glad you factored in Gendry being nominally trained as a smith so he would be far more used to heavy hammers than most swordsmen

What is the advantage of a hollow war hammer? Wouldn't it be more effective to use a solid hammer and spike that weigh the same but are smaller to focus the force on the target?

Grow a beard so you can look like jesus

impossible to wield? no. Impractical? Yes. You aren't going to be able to parry much with a sledgehammer, but against mindless zombies it might be okay. The zombies keep moving unless they are killed by fire, they aren't going to bleed out from a stab or cut. So a blunt attack might be good to cripple them at least, so they can't move effectively.